# Nancy New Nancy New is the founder and former director of the Mississippi Community Education Center (MCEC) and its affiliated entity New Learning Resources, Inc. — the two nonprofits that served as the principal conduit for misspent federal anti-poverty funds in the [[Mississippi Welfare Funds Scandal]], the largest public-fraud case in the state's history. Between roughly 2017 and 2020, MCEC received tens of millions of dollars in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) money funneled through the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) under director [[John Davis (Mississippi)]], and redirected much of it to favored projects, personal enrichments, and politically connected beneficiaries rather than to the needy families the funds were intended to serve. ## MCEC and the Scheme MCEC was nominally a community-education and early-childhood-development nonprofit, and New Learning Resources operated private schools. Under New's leadership they became, in practice, pass-through vehicles for TANF grants that [[John Davis (Mississippi)]] steered their way. The scheme worked because Mississippi's TANF system gave extraordinary discretion to the MDHS director: Davis approved sub-grants to MCEC with minimal oversight, and New disbursed the funds at his direction. The scale was staggering. State auditor Shad White identified at least $77 million in questionable TANF spending. Among the most prominent diversions: **The volleyball stadium.** MCEC directed approximately $5 million in TANF funds toward the construction of a volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi — a project championed by [[Brett Favre]], the retired NFL quarterback, whose daughter played volleyball at the university. Favre personally lobbied then-Governor [[Phil Bryant]] and Davis for the funding, as text messages later revealed. The spectacle of welfare dollars earmarked for Mississippi's poorest families flowing instead into a college athletics facility became the scandal's defining image. **Payments to Brett Favre.** MCEC paid [[Brett Favre]] $1.1 million for speaking engagements that, according to state auditors, he never performed. Favre later repaid the principal but has disputed owing interest. He was named in a civil suit but was not criminally charged. **Payments to the DiBiase family.** MCEC also routed millions to the family of professional wrestler Ted DiBiase Sr. — including roughly $3.2 million to his son Ted DiBiase Jr. — for motivational speaking and mentoring services whose actual delivery was later disputed at trial. **Other diversions.** Funds flowed to personal purchases, favored contractors, and projects unrelated to anti-poverty services. The breadth of the misuse underscored that the problem was not one rogue transaction but a systematic capture of a federal safety-net program by a small network of politically connected insiders. ## Guilty Pleas and Cooperation In April 2022 Nancy New and her son Zach New pleaded guilty to state charges including bribery and fraud in Hinds County Circuit Court. Nancy New subsequently pleaded guilty to federal wire-fraud charges as well. Both agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, making them key witnesses in the broader investigation that has implicated [[John Davis (Mississippi)]] (who also pleaded guilty), members of the DiBiase family, and other participants. New faces up to 99 years on state charges, with 25 years to serve, plus federal penalties. As of mid-2026 her sentencing on state charges had been repeatedly delayed, pending completion of her cooperation in ongoing federal proceedings against other defendants. ## Political Connections The scandal exposed a web of relationships between MCEC, the governor's office, and the state's political establishment. Text messages obtained through litigation showed [[Phil Bryant]] communicating with [[Brett Favre]] and New about the volleyball-stadium project while he was governor. Bryant has not been charged, but the messages damaged his reputation and raised questions about the extent to which Mississippi's political class facilitated or ignored the diversion of anti-poverty funds. [[Tate Reeves]], who succeeded Bryant as governor, has sought to distance himself from the scandal. The investigative reporting that broke the case open — particularly by journalist [[Anna Wolfe]] at Mississippi Today — won national recognition and forced a state-level reckoning with how TANF block grants are administered. ## Federal Fallout The scandal triggered federal consequences beyond the criminal cases. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initially determined that MDHS must repay approximately $101 million in misspent TANF funds — a penalty that would have come out of Mississippi's state budget. In October 2025 the federal government rescinded that repayment requirement, a decision that drew criticism from anti-poverty advocates who argued it removed the financial incentive for states to police their own TANF spending. The [[Department of Justice]] pursued federal charges in parallel with state prosecution. The cooperation agreements with Nancy and Zach New were central to the federal strategy: their testimony provided the insider account of how MDHS grants were approved, how MCEC disbursed funds, and who directed the money where. ## Why She Matters for the KB Nancy New is the operational center of the [[Mississippi Welfare Funds Scandal]] — the person who controlled the nonprofit infrastructure through which TANF money was laundered from its intended purpose into private benefit. The scandal is a case study in several vault themes: [[Corruption]] in one-party-dominant state politics, the vulnerability of federal block grants to local capture, the gap between safety-net rhetoric and safety-net reality, and the role of investigative journalism in exposing [[Fraud]] that official oversight missed for years. The TANF dimension is particularly significant. The 1996 welfare reform converted the old entitlement system into block grants that gave states broad discretion — a policy the right championed as empowering local governance. Mississippi's scandal demonstrates the downside: discretion without accountability creates exactly the conditions for the kind of insider self-dealing New and Davis engineered. ## See Also - [[Mississippi Welfare Funds Scandal]] — the overarching scandal - [[John Davis (Mississippi)]] — the MDHS director who steered funds to MCEC - [[Phil Bryant]] — governor whose texts revealed involvement - [[Brett Favre]] — recipient of diverted welfare funds - [[Tate Reeves]] — successor governor - [[Anna Wolfe]] — investigative journalist who broke the story - [[Corruption]] · [[Fraud]] - [[Department of Justice]] — federal prosecution